The Windward Planning Commission has recommended passage of a bill that would require the County Council to approve any time extensions for rezoning applications.
Bill 194 was initially introduced by North Kona Councilman Holeka Inaba in August, and clarifies that the county planning director cannot unilaterally authorize an extension to a rezoning application without the approval of the council.
After a meeting by the Council Committee on Planning, the bill was sent to the Windward and Leeward Planning Commissions for further review.
At the Thursday meeting of the Windward Planning Commission, Inaba explained his intentions for the bill. He said that in cases where an applicant is running out of time to meet the conditions of a zoning application, the planning director is able to grant a one-time extension — for example, granting another five years on five-year application.
“Within different rezoning ordinances, the Planning Department inserts language that grants it the authority to grant the applicant an administrative extension,” Inaba said. “So, what I’m trying to do here is … to remove that ability of the department to insert that language.”
Inaba said that if an application seems like it would realistically need an extension, it could instead be made longer at the outset — instead of a five-year extension for a five-year application, the department could just grant a 10-year application at the start.
Inaba said the bill is, in part, a response to public complaints, particularly in West Hawaii, about the public record not reflecting whether an extension has been granted because the extension was granted by the planning director.
“It really is just a matter of transparency,” Inaba said. “If we know that things are taking longer now, let’s give people more time to get that time. When we look back at the public record and it says that an ordinance expires five years from today, we should be able to know that, five years from today, it’s done. We shouldn’t have to go to the Planning Department to see if someone got an extension for another five years.”
Planning Director Zendo Kern said he doesn’t have a problem with the intention behind the bill, but clarified that the Planning Department is not handing out extensions willy-nilly.
“There is a misconception that time extensions are just handed out over and over and over again, and there’s no diligence in what’s being done,” Kern said. “Once that time extension is done, then they have to go through the process again.”
The Windward Planning Commission voted to recommend the bill’s passage with amended language to better clarify its purpose. The Leeward Planning Commission is next scheduled to discuss it on Oct. 20.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.